The construction of a building, for example, involves several different parties who are all involved in a coordinated effort to construct the building. On the front end or design portion of a project; the parties involved may include an architect, a structural engineer, a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, and often an information technology consultant or engineer. In a design-build project, a construction manager and/or one or more contractors may also be involved in the front end or design portion of the project. During construction of the project, a general contractor or construction manager may manage the project and several sub-contractors having particular expertise may construct particular aspects of the building. For example, a structural steel contractor may erect the steel structure, a mechanical or heating, ventilation, and air conditioning contractor may install these respective systems, and an electrical contractor may install the electrical components of a building.
The several parties involved during the construction of the project may read, study, or otherwise interpret the design prepared on the front end of a project. This generally includes reading plans and specifications and often preparing shop drawings for fabrication of the party's respective portions of the project. The shop drawings may then be reviewed by the designing entity and, once approved, used by a fabrication facility to fabricate the several components of the party's portion of the project. The several components may then be shipped to the project site and installed.
As the several parties involved during construction coordinate their efforts, a contractor or other construction manager often monitors their work for purposes of coordinating and scheduling the several aspects of the project. In addition, the work may be monitored for purposes of progress payments. That is, contractors are often paid based on their percent completion. It is common for percent completion to be relatively cursorily developed. That is, the general contractor may ask the electrical contractor how far they are and the electrical contractor may roughly estimate that they are 30% complete, for example. The general contractor may then make a payment to the electrical contractor in an amount approximately equal to 30% of the electrical contract amount.